Royal Oak (Saltash Street)

It stood just a few doors up from the Ebenezer Chapel (which became Methodist Central Hall) on the northern side of the junction with Mill Street. One of many short-lived, mid-nineteenth century beerhouses, it would appear that the first licensee here was John Tapson who had previously been operating a wheelwrights business from the same property. Perhaps that was behind the inspiration to call the pub The Royal Oak, as oak has long been a principal timber in the manufacture of wooden wheels; typically oak would be cut in the late spring, early summer, only to be marked out and cut much later before being left five or six years before being worked into shape. Curiously, for a short while before converting to a beerhouse, Tapson had a ‘bath chair lender’ operating out of the same building with him.